Florida should help protect Puerto Ricans’ voting rights

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico 2 weeks ago, creating devastating damage and a humanitarian crisis for 3.5 million U.S. citizens. Today, 88 percent of Puerto Rico’s residents lack electricity, 43 percent lack water, the health care and school systems are in shambles, and over 58 citizens have died, while the president has been throwing paper towels at people and tweeting racist diatribes.

All this is exacerbated by 100 percent of Puerto Ricans lacking equal access to voting rights. [...]

As Puerto Rico’s population is 99 percent Latino with significant Afro-Latino heritage, Trump’s openly white supremacist response to the humanitarian crisis is not surprising. President Trump brags about “doing a great job” in Puerto Rico, failing to notice the elderly and infirm and a generation of children who may not go back to school any time soon. They are why we cannot ignore the need to fight for Puerto Rican voting rights. Without that fight, recovery will be even more difficult.